Are you a college student who’s started a new semester and is feeling the pinch of being a student with limited funds – specifically surrounding food and groceries? In this article, I’ll go over the cheapest college meals for students on a budget. These grocery and recipe ideas saved me over $3,000 over the course of four years of college. If you stick to a meal plan and commit to remaining disciplined, you’ll make it through college while remaining healthy and well-fed without breaking on the bank.
Read on to learn about the cheapest college meals for students on a budget.
Preparing the Cheapest College Meals Begins with Sticking to a Plan
Essential Steps for Preparing the Cheapest College Meals
Below is my ten-step essential guide to preparing the cheapest college meals for students. Alongside learning how to create and maintain a low-income budget, these steps were essential in my ability to save thousands of dollars during my postsecondary studies. Due to implementing these strategies, I was able to drastically reduce the amount of student loans I took out, increasing my overall net worth and ability to invest starting in my mid-twenties.
1. Use Leftovers
First and foremost, if you’re serious about creating and sticking to a budget, always use what you already have. Even that tiny little bit of pasta can be repurposed and mixed into a new dish. For example, that extra bit of rotini can be mixed into a cold pasta salad the next evening – all you need to do is boil up some more pasta! Avoid making too much food and needing to store tons of leftovers all the time by portioning out ingredients into containers when you meal prep. I’ll get into the essential steps on meal prepping later on in this article.
2. Ensure You Use Products Before They Expire
Aside from using leftovers before they go bad, be sure to use any ingredients in your freezer, fridge and pantry before they pass their expiry date. Sure – after coming back from a tiring trip to the grocery store, it’s easy to throw those bean and soup cans into the pantry, pushing the older cans back even further. In the same way, it’s easy to throw frozen fruit bags on top of the old ones. However, this isn’t a great practice for saving money and living frugal. When you throw the newest items in on top, you’re a lot less likely to dig down to the bottom of the freezer and use the items that are about to become freezer-burnt.
Avoid this bad money-wasting habit by:
- Pulling all items out of your fridge, freezer and pantry.
- Checking the expiry date on all items. Throw out any items that have gone bad (hopefully none if you’ve stuck to rotating your inventory!)
- Placing the items back in order of date closest to expiry. For example, if you have 3 cans of tomato soup that expire November 2025, December 2024 and May 2024, put the November can in the back, the December can in the middle and the May can at the front of your pantry.
Alternatively, choose a designated day once a week to do a clean out of your fridge, freezer and pantry. While I personally prefer doing it then since I’m putting items away anyway after having come back from the store, you may want to spread out your grocery-related tasks throughout the week. Choose whichever strategy work best for you – just keep a regular schedule and stick with it.
3. Choose Filling and Healthy Staples
If you live in a dorm, you may have an on-campus meal plan where you pay for meals using a special debit card. While convenient, this can be dangerous! When I was in university, my dining dollars went quickly. It was too easy to load up on a plate of curly fries at 9 pm. Unhealthy food is generally fattier and less filling. A couple hours after I ate the fries, I was hungry again! Due to my poor habits, I had to reload my card twice before the year was done. Plus, I gained quite a bit of weight by the time the year was up.
Avoid getting into a similar situation I was in by stocking up on healthy, filling snacks and keeping them in your dorm room’s mini-fridge or on the shelves. Good groceries for college students to stock up on include cashews, trail mix, granola bars, yogurt with granola and peanut butter with bananas. In addition to stocking up on healthy snacks, always eat a filling and healthy breakfast such as eggs with whole-grain toast, a smoothie bowl with granola or a protein shake. Your wallet and your waistline will thank you in the long run!
4. Prepare a Grocery List with the Same Ingredients for Different Dishes
While stocking up on healthy staples is crucial, you are still on a budget – after all, the whole point of this article is to provide you with the cheapest college meals. It’s possible to stick to a budget and stay healthy. Two essential ways you must do this are bringing a grocery list to the store and trying to use the same ingredients in most or all of your meals for the upcoming week. Let’s get into how to go about doing both.
Always Preparing and Bringing a Grocery List to the Store
Never go to the grocery store without bringing a list! When you bring a list on your shopping trip, you’ll be a lot less likely to deviate from it… aka. end up with 3 bags of chips and case of soda. Every college grocery shopping list is going to have a treat or two on it – you work hard and need to reward yourself! However, if you load your cart or basket with snacks every week, you’ll quickly derail your budget. Even $30 extra spent per week equates to over $1,500 spent per year – that’s a good chunk of change!
Using the Same Ingredients for Different Dishes
Aside from bringing a grocery list, try to use the same ingredients for multiple dishes. When I was in college, I bought a large pack of chicken and made it last through the week to make:
- Chicken breast with rice
- A chicken broth-based soup
- Creamy chicken pasta salad
Other ingredients that top any list of the cheapest food for college students (and anyone else for a budget) include:
- Beans
- Tofu
- Ground beef
- Rice
- Pasta
Get your frugal grocery shopping and cooking journey started with this meal plan:
Breakfast
Meal: strawberry banana smoothie bowl and protein shake
Ingredients needed: strawberries, bananas, milk, granola, chia seeds
Lunch
Meals: tuna salad sandwiches, tuna pasta salad
Ingredients needed: tuna, pasta, whole-grain bread, hummus and mayo, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce
Dinner
Meals: tacos, Shepherd’s pie
Ingredients needed: tortillas, ground beef, potatoes, cheese, veggie broth, onions, olive oil, lettuce, canned veggies, tomato soup can
Note that most of the same ingredients can be used for both meals. When you choose to cook different recipes with the same ingredients, you’ll have the chance to buy in bulk, which is generally cheaper in the long run!
Other cheap food to buy that should be on every grocery list for college students include:
- Frozen veggies and fruit
- Peas
- Sweet potatoes
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
5. Compare Prices at Different Grocery Stores
Once you’ve used what you have and have prepared a grocery list, use an app such as Flipp to compare the same product at different stores. If you have a car or live near a reliable transit line, worth visiting a couple stores to get the cheapest of each item at each store.
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6. Choose a Designated Day to Shop and Meal Prep
Good habits are the foundation to success. When you choose a designated day to meal plan, shop and prepare you meals, you’ll be a lot more likely to stay on track with budget cooking. When I was in college, I chose Sunday afternoons as my grocery shopping and meal prep day. I found that getting everything food-related out of the way helped me allocate enough time towards other tasks such as cleaning before a new week of school began. Alternatively, you can do your shopping and meal prep on different days. Just be sure to choose a schedule that works for you and try to shop around the same time and on the same day every week. Additionally, block out the time on your calendar so you commit to it in the same way you’d commit to homework or going to class!
7. Choose a Treat Day
Eating delicious, wallet-friendly meals is fun and all, but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo pizza or Chinese altogether! Set aside a designated day to treat yourself to your favorite takeout order. Again, in the same way you should stick to a schedule for grocery shopping and meal cooking, try to choose the same day to treat yourself. This way, you won’t accidentally slip into other habit of ordering pizza the third time this week because you’ve forgotten that you already ordered on Monday and Wednesday.
8. Invest in a Water Bottle
“Invest in a water bottle? What does that have to do with meal planning?” you say. Glad you asked! When you invest in a water bottle, you’ll be a lot more likely to:
- Drink more water, keeping you fuller longer and preventing you from buying fast food that only keeps you full for an hour
- Avoid purchasing disposable water bottles, saving you money
Most college hallways and dorms have a refilalble water station, so be sure to always carry a large, BPA-free water bottle everywhere you go. By avoiding purchasing excess plastic, you’ll also help the environment!
9. Eat on a Regular Schedule
I get it – college is busy. One day, you’ve got an 8:30 am lecture, a 3pm lecture and then 3 hours of homework to do at night. The next day, you don’t have to get up until 10am. While it might be tempting to sleep in and eat a late breakfast when you can, resist the urge. Get up earlier and try eating 3 square meals a day around the same time. When you get into this habit, your body will stay on a regular schedule and you’ll get consistent hunger signals, which means you’ll be able to proactively have food on hand when you know you’ll be hungry. Alternatively, eat 4 or 5 smaller meals a day. Again, just be sure to stay consistent with your schedule.
10. Find an Accountability Partner
Committing to frugal grocery shopping and cooking as a college student is no small feat. Everywhere, you are surrounded by temptations. Whether it’s grabbing a burger from McDonald’s on the way home from your 9pm psychology class or stuffing your face with a breakfast sandwich when you’re in a rush, these expenses can add up quickly. Hold yourself accountable by finding someone to do a frugal cooking challenge with you! Why not ask a classmate or roommate to meet once a week to chat about:
- What meals you’ve made this week
- Any challenges you’ve faced: for example, staying on budget, sticking to a grocery list and only consuming takeout once a week
Even 15 minutes spent meeting for a cup of coffee or a 30-minute lunch break is a great way to bond over a frugal lifestyle. In college, I had two roommates that held me accountable regarding preparing healthy meals and grocery shopping. This was super helpful and helped both my wallet and body stay healthy!
Cheap Meal Ideas to Get You Inspried
Well, I’ve just provided the essential 10-step guide on making cheap meals for college students. Now, I’ll provide you with some meal ideas to get you inspired. Read on to learn about:
- The top college-friendly meals for students new to cooking
- Meal ideas for those students with an extremely busy schedule
These essential twenty meal ideas (with links to my favorite recipes) are here to get you inspired. Get creative and mix things up a bit. Feel free to swap in and out different ingredients to your liking. Don’t want chicken tacos? Opt for fish or beef! Are you on a vegan or vegetarian diet like me? Make easy vegetarian college meals simply by swapping out meat and cheese for wallet-friendly plant-based alternatives such as tofu and pinto beans.
Wallet-Friendly Meals for Students New to Cooking
- Easy ground beef tacos
- Pasta salad
- Chicken ranch wrap
- Baked potato
- Sloppy Joes
- Easy nachos
- Fried chicken and rice
- Easy 10-minute quesadillas
- Vegetable stir fry
- Spaghetti with meat sauce
Wallet-Friendly Meals to Prepare for Students with Limited Time
- Bean and cheese burrito
- Hummus bowl with roasted veggies
- Mayo-free tuna hummus salad sandwich
- Soft shell tacos
- Turkey pinwheel wraps
- Peanut butter and banana on toast
- Smashed avocado on toast with poached eggs
- Quick and easy egg salad sandwich
- Egg burrito
- Proper British beans on toast
A Final Word on the Cheapest College Meals
There you have it: the essential guide to preparing the cheapest meals for college students along with some ideas to get you inspired. What are you waiting for? Head over to your nearest supermarket (armed with a grocery list first!) and get shopping. Have fun, be creative and enjoy cooking on a budget. With a little patience and preparation, making cheap meals while in college is possible!
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Janita is a frugal living expert and owner of Frugal Fun Finance. With over five years of personal experience finding and trying out the best ways to make and save more money, she's eager to share her knowledge. Janita's strategies have helped her save thousands of dollars for funding investments and traveling to over 20 countries.
Janita completed training in personal finance at The University of Western Ontario and McGill University, two prestigious Canadian universities. Her expertise has been shared on GoBankingRates, Yahoo Finance, and NASDAQ.com.
